Story Highlights

The Dollar General store downtown on Fifth Avenue North could close as early as this fall after that property changes ownership.

Local real estate broker Chad Grout acknowledged in a recent email to mostly other local brokers that a group he's working with has the three-story, 30,000-square-foot building at 221 Fifth Ave. N. under contract.

"We'll have 7,000 square feet (divisible) of ground-floor retail space when Dollar General vacates in the fall," Grout said in the July email, asking them to send any prospective tenants his way. "The top two floors is all office and already spoken for."

On Thursday Grout declined further comment, but one observer called what's planned at the location a game-changer for that part of downtown.

Dollar General spokesman Dan MacDonald. meanwhile, acknowledged that the discount retail chain's lease will end on Oct. 31. "After that, we are on a month-to-month lease," he said.

With retail rents rising, a transformation is under way along Fifth Avenue North downtown. Older retail and other businesses are being replaced by art galleries, coffee shops and new restaurants.

"Dollar General doesn't fit and the rents are going to be factor," said Jimbo Cook, a retail/restaurant broker with real estate agency Cook Properties in Nashville.

He then pondered possibilities for the building Dollar General occupies, which is across from The Arcade. "It could be a restaurant or a restaurant downstairs and upstairs maybe convert it into some sort of residential use," Cook said.

Cook sees pending projects bringing more change to shopping demographics in the area dubbed 5th Avenue of the Arts. Those include developer Tony Giarratana's planned 45-story residential high-rise with 550 apartments and retail space at Fifth and Church, and redevelopment of the old Nashville Convention Center.

Edmond H. Dabit is the listed owner of the Dollar General store property at 221 Fifth Ave. N., which sits on 0.17 acres and includes an open finished basement. The upper floors are used as storage space.

Historic property

The property built in 1930 is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Fifth Avenue Historic District.

Previously known as the Woolworth Building, it was the site of two sit-ins in February 1960, according to "Nashville's Civil Rights Movement: A Walking and Driving Tour" published by preservationists group Historic Nashville Inc.

"Because of its historic value architecturally and as a Civil Rights site, we're hopeful that this landmark will be renovated for a new use," said Robbie Jones, a board member of Historic Inc.